During integrated circuit manufacture, semiconductor wafers used in semiconductor fabrication typically undergo numerous processing steps including deposition, patterning, and etching. Details of these manufacturing steps for semiconductor wafers are reported by Tonshoff et al., "Abrasive Machining of Silicon", published in the Annals of the International Institution for Production Engineering Research, (Volume 39/2/1990), pp. 621-635. In each manufacturing step, it is often necessary or desirable to modify or refine an exposed surface of the wafer to prepare it for subsequent fabrication or manufacturing steps.
In conventional semiconductor device fabrication schemes, a flat, base silicon wafer is subjected to a series of processing steps that deposit uniform layers of two or more discrete materials to form a single layer of a multilayer structure. In this process, it is common to apply a uniform layer of a first material to the wafer itself or to an existing layer of an intermediate construct by any of the means commonly employed in the art, to etch pits into or through that layer, and then to fill the pits with a second material. Alternatively, features of approximately uniform thickness comprising a first material may be deposited onto the wafer, or onto a previously fabricated layer of the wafer, usually through a mask, and then the regions adjacent to those features may be filled with a second material to complete the layer. Following the deposition step, the deposited material or layer on a wafer surface generally needs further processing before additional deposition or subsequent processing occurs. When completed, the outer surface is substantially globally planar and parallel to the base silicon wafer surface. A specific example of such a process is the metal Damascene processes.
In the Damascene process, a pattern is etched into an oxide dielectric (e.g., silicon dioxide) layer. After etching, optional adhesion/barrier layers are deposited over the entire surface. Typical barrier layers may comprise tantalum, tantalum nitride, titanium or titanium nitride, for example. Next, a metal (e.g., copper) is deposited over the dielectric and any adhesion/barrier layers. The deposited metal layer is then modified, refined or finished by removing the deposited metal and optionally portions of the adhesion/barrier layer from the surface of the dielectric. Typically, enough surface metal is removed so that the outer exposed surface of the wafer comprises both metal and an oxide dielectric material. A top view of the exposed wafer surface would reveal a planar surface with metal corresponding to the etched pattern and dielectric material adjacent to the metal. The metal(s) and oxide dielectric material(s) located on the modified surface of the wafer inherently have different physical characteristics, such as different hardness values. The abrasive treatment used to modify a wafer produced by the Damascene process must be designed to simultaneously modify the metal and dielectric materials without scratching the surface of either material. The abrasive treatment must create a planar outer exposed surface on a wafer having an exposed area of a metal and an exposed area of a dielectric material.
The process of modifying the deposited metal layer to expose the dielectric material leaves little margin for error because of the submicron dimensions of the metal features located on the wafer surface. The removal rate of the deposited metal should be relatively high to minimize manufacturing costs, and the metal must be completely removed from the areas that were not etched. The metal remaining in the etched areas must be limited to discrete areas or zones while being continuous within those areas or zones to ensure proper conductivity. In short, the metal modification process must be uniform, controlled, and reproducible on a submicron scale.
One conventional method of modifying or refining exposed surfaces of structured wafers treats a wafer surface with a slurry containing a plurality of loose abrasive particles dispersed in a liquid. Typically this slurry is applied to a polishing pad and the wafer surface is then ground or moved against the pad in order to remove material from the wafer surface. Generally, the slurry may also contain chemical agents or working liquids that react with the wafer surface to modify the removal rate. The above described process is commonly referred to as a chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) process. Certain shortcomings to the traditional CMP process have been noted. For example, it is expensive to dispose of the used slurries in an environmentally sound manner. In addition, residual abrasive particles can be difficult to remove from the surface of the semiconductor wafer following the polishing operation. If not removed, these residual particles may contribute to electrical and mechanical failure of the finished semiconductor devices.
A recent alternative to CMP slurry methods uses an abrasive article to modify or refine a semiconductor surface and thereby eliminate the need for the foregoing slurries. This alternative CMP process is reported, for example, in International Publication No. WO 97/11484, published Mar. 27, 1997. The reported abrasive article has a textured abrasive surface which includes abrasive particles dispersed in a binder. In use, the abrasive article is contacted with a semiconductor wafer surface, often in the presence of a working liquid, with a motion adapted to modify a single layer of material on the wafer and provide a planar, uniform wafer surface. The working liquid is applied to the surface of the wafer to chemically modify or otherwise facilitate the removal of a material from the surface of the wafer under the action of the abrasive article.
The above-mentioned working liquids may comprise any of a variety of liquids such as water or, more typically, aqueous solutions of complexing agents, oxidizing agents, passivating agents, surfactants, wetting agents, buffers, rust inhibitors, lubricants, soaps, combinations of these additives, or the like. Additives may also include agents which are reactive with the second material, e.g., metal or metal alloy conductors on the wafer surface such as oxidizing, reducing, passivating, or complexing agents.
It is desirable to provide improvements in CMP processes. It is especially desirable to provide improvements in CMP processes by utilizing abrasive articles exhibiting a higher degree of selective planarization than those produced with conventional slurry based processes. It is also desirable to provide processes that employ abrasive articles free of traditional abrasive particles while still being effective in a CMP process without the need for the aforementioned slurries.